Mad Men Creator Matthew Weiner Offers Some Cryptic Clues About the Show’s Sixth Season, Which Premieres in April

Exciting news: AMC has scheduled Mad Men’s Season Six premiere for April 7—a mere two months and 15 days, or 74 days total, from today. And while the show's notoriously tight-lipped creator, Matthew Weiner, is still not discussing those “Don Goes to Hawaii” set photos, he has offered some clues about Mad Men’s penultimate season.

Like last season’s agonizingly delayed premiere, the upcoming season opener will be a movie-length two hours. Although Weiner suggested the extended episode last time around, AMC suggested it for Season Six. Of the premiere, Weiner tells The New York Times: “It has some cliffhanger elements to it, it does propel you into the rest of the season—it does foreshadow a lot what the season is about. But I was like, I want to write a movie here, that we can create the atmosphere and vibe of the season.”

And while no one knows when Season Six will be set, Weiner says the show “will advance in time,” and the new season will be reflective of contemporary society. “There’s always the intention to have it have something to do with the world we’re in right now,” Weiner told The Daily Beast. “That’s only because I only can write from what I know. And for some reason or another, this season feels particularly related to where I feel that we are right now, as a country and as a society. . . . I think that the social order, the blow to our self-esteem and turning inward as we deal with the loss of something. The loss of our—now I’m being super-vague about it. I’m not prepared to talk about it.”

While he remains similarly protective of Season Six’s plot points, Weiner says that this season is chockfull of ideas that have been percolating for a while. After his executive producers told him to “‘go for broke, use up everything you have and we’ll deal with it later,’” he “decided to throw it all in.”

Contrary to some viewers’ morbid predictions, one of these plot points does not appear to involve Pete’s (Vincent Kartheiser) suicide. “I know the character of Pete very well,” Weiner said, “and I don’t see Peter Campbell as someone who would ever commit suicide. He is very judgmental about mental illness. He eventually said it in Episode 13 that he views it as weak, and that was already written and shot when all of this hubbub started.” And in other character news, Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) will return—even though we saw her quit Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce last season.

While Weiner gives few further clues about what to expect, he does offer a pro tip to viewers gearing up for the premiere. “I would love for people to just watch the last 10 minutes of Season 5 right before Season 6 starts,” he says. “I think you’ll have a really incredible experience as we get there.”